Saturday, May 31, 2014

okay - been a while since i posted - yes i do rely on kymber to hold down the fort ;-)

so lots of mishmash in this post.... but lotsa junque too!

like this old trailer our friend d gave us. i took the rotten plywood off in march (these pics) - it needs work!

especially where the braces at back part of the springs are located - they are rotting...

see?

the front parts are fine - now i am NOT going to go nuts fixing this but the tires hold air so i want it for the atv - project asap.. i thought about replacing the braces ..

but i have these pieces of HARD wood from trimming the kitchen chairs years ago

so why not just prevent a collapse? measure...

cut...

and insert!!!

this pic should show you better - the other side is okay, but all that rotten iron is now buffeted against collapse - replacing the brace would have taken hours and grinding and new nuts and and and... screw it - this will work - took 15 mins!

whoops - need a bed - how about junque plywood??

and a couple of extra boards - well that was march, then it snowed and that project was put on hold ;_))))

the other day - what is THIS for...... ?

to fix the old garden cart i painted to save - the inner tubes were shot - yes a new cart is not that expensive, but sometimes the principal is the thing..

especially because for some odd reason, somebody threw out a fake ammo box that replaces the sides!!!

seriously!!!

and all i have to do is lift it off and there is a flatbed - woot!

interlude...my friend p gave me these flange gloves...

so i could go into the brush on the driveway...

and gather up last year's weed leftovers (including some comfry)

i read this on the interwebs - poor man's mulcher - put it in a garbage can/bucket ..

and stuff in your weedwacker and then grind 'e down

and voila - mulch!! not the best instructions, but the procedure should be straightforward... i got a new corded b and d weedwacker @ 1/2 price the other day - it was worth it!!!

so next morning - i am going fishing!!! k is still asleep - for some odd reason she is impervious to cats screaming "feed me!!! feed me!!" at the bottom of the bed in the AM!!! it is definitely late may - this is the sun @ 6: 45 AM!!!

sad/frustrating story - i bought this old DAM microlite reel off ebay and restored it to near-mint. i had read about people using older reels due to certain limitation in the construction of newer reels.. this reel has a brass worm drive and lotsa great sounding stuff - BUT... the line roller is sticky..

my trusty standby is a shimano sahar 100 i bought 15 years ago ... after few casts - no contest - the shimano was 10 times better!!! i remember using mitchell 300s when i was a kid - they were good then- the DAMs were better- but now??

so - spend 50 bux on a modern reel ...

on the other hand, graphite rods on the other will last forever if you keep them dry - most of mine are 15-20 years old - my berkley lightning rod i bought in 1988 - it is as good as the day i bought it!

anyway - nice day!

no wind..

1st trout....

outta 4!

later yesterday - i finished the trailer... with all scrap wood..

here it is all finished.

so.... what do you do with a finished trailer?? what else, put a girl/your wife in it!!!!

20 mins after the above pic was taken, we got called to a brush fire, our fire boots got christened...

k's heels took a real beating - she slammed the boots on w/o socks.. they are in really bad shape and she will not be able to wear anything but flipflops for weeks! we took pics but her heels look so bad that i decided not include the pics.

so sorry about the last but hey - we prevented a forest fire with our community - they rock!!

and when my buddy Rob makes a request, i can't ignore it. plus today, jambaloney, THE MAN, made us our version of a tractor (we can't afford one yet...and he made it all out of free junk. i love that junk man!!!)

here ya go....Tractor Time done in the Framboise Manor Style.....and here are the *ss-kicking boots that no one believes exists. enjoy - bahahahahahah!

and another pic for you non-believers!

bahahahahahahah! we had fun.

it was a very busy day as i already mentioned...but what a gorgeous day! have a peek!

we planted a bed of several kinds of carrots, radishes and beets. and laid mulch between the rows that jambaloney made with his crazy mulcher that he made - he'll have a post about it up soon.

how about a trout breakfast, caught by THE MAN, and some fresh salad greens grown in our greenhouse. oh yummeh!

oh crap - holy moly the fire pager just went off - i gotta run!

EDITED TO ADD: well, we got the message over our fire pager - a brush fire somewhere in the middle of nowhere where some "weekenders" or "cottagers" came out, built a fire or tossed a cigarette or whatever...and there i am dressed in my *ss-kicking boots and we get a call for a brush fire. for a few minutes it was mayhem and madness - do you people know how long it takes to untie those boots???? but we were dressed in our fire gear and out the door in 5 minutes. the brush fire was about 10kms from here on a backyard and the actual fire was 300metres by 400metres mostly burning at the ground level. mostly it was a cleared area so we were able to prevent it from becoming a forest fire. a good dozen members of our VFD showed up and we were able to put that baby out in really good time.

but oh my gosh - it was scary. jambaloney and other of my friends with backpacks going into a forest fire scares the living crap out of me. then my friend d handed me a roll of hose and aid "kymber - don't lose the nozzle"! i carried that piece of hose for at least 50ft when my friend b told me to drop it - and nobody else was carrying hose.

in the hurry - i forgot to put socks on. my feet are blistered to heck. i won't even mention the black fly situation...i am bit to eff. and will probably be sick for days.

however, the fire is out. and we are home safe again. it's not easy being on the Volunteer Fire Department...if that sounds like we are wimps....try moving up here, having a pager go off just when you are ready for supper after a long day, and having to rush out the door to put out a fire that some idiot caused by coming up for weekend fishing. or something like that. if our friends, and we, hadn't acted so quickly - goodness knows how much of our surrounding land could have burned down?!?!?!?!?

now we're just tired and hungry. and wished we didn't cook everything from scratch. we'd kill for a can of chef boyardi ravioli right now. we're starving, worn out, bitten to death and wish we could order some pizza.

oh man! this was supposed to be a funny post. i suppose it kind of is.

Wednesday, May 28, 2014

hey kids....i have received a few comments and several emails with people wondering whether our river is in the front yard or the back yard....so hopefully this post will help with that.

first up though....look at this majestic early evening sky:

allrighty - so here is our front yard:

we are high up on a hill and that blue you see down below is called Strachan's Brook. it feeds into our river, the Framboise River. Strachan's Brook is about 250metres (about 1/5 of mile from our house).

this is a pic of our backyard. our river, The Framboise River is about 400metres (1/4 of a mile from our house).

here i used the zoom function on the camera.

so no matter if we are in the front yard, or the backyard, we can always look at crystal clear blue water. but we love our river...and own 200ft of waterfront on it. no matter, there's hardly any people that have land that extends to the river.

here's a google image that might help you better understand.

you can see our house, the waterfront and the blue dot thing points out Strachan's Brook and shows how it empties into our beautiful river.

i hope that helps with any confustion. if not, just ask in the comments.

anyway, jambaloney found these local sausages on for real cheap several months ago and bought a bunch of them. we just can't believe how tasty they are!?!?!!? not too spicey but just spicy enough. they are deelish!

today was supposed to be sunny all day but the clouds didn't clear out until around noon. ever since noon, it has been gorgeous and sunny and we worked our butts off. jambaloney made me some more dirt for starting more seeds, wheedwhacked all around the backyard, the boneyard (his "junk" area) and made a nifty mulcher using the wheedwhacker and a garbage can - he'll have more on that later. kids - can you say "woohoo! MULCH!". i know that you can. i topped up all of my little brassicas - like 40 of them!!! started up big pots of wasabi arugala, gala mache, watercress and edible nasturtiums. filled up another 76 styrafoam cups full of awesome, sifted dirt and come tomorrow - i'll be planting a whole nuther pile of herbs, cucumbers, zuchhinis, cucumbers, squash and melons - wahooey!

and after a long day of work, i fed the man some deeeeelicious home-made loaded cheeseburgers!

one last pic of the awesome sky from last night. try not to pay attention to all of the junk collecting around vandura - bahahahahah!

About Framboise Manor

Framboise Manor is our Bug-Out Location (BOL) that we have been living in since December 2010. As can be seen by the above picture - calling it simply a "Manor" doesn't do it justice - we bet you think it is more like an "Estate", eh?

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Who Are We?

we are jambaloney and kymber. here's a pic of us below...we look very happy and content. it's because we really are!

About jambaloney

(he's only 23 in this pic...he has 20+years of additional muscle now...if you can believe it!)

kymber here and talking about jambaloney.

i've always called him my angel. my rock. my best half. the best part of what i have always wanted to become.

he has a soul as big as the biggest mountain, he is strong, he is in incredible physical condition, he is 51 and yet most people think he is under 40. he is humble and modest, charming, gorgeous and will help anyone with anything at anytime. he never grumbles and only every now and again complains or is a tiny bit cranky (nothing that a hug can't fix!). he can cut both sides out of 70 tires in minutes, build raised beds from scrap wood that he drags out of the forest, weedwhack 800ft of our road down to the river, and haul more wheelbarrows of dirt, mulch, rocks and seaweed than is probably medically-advised. he's learned how to braid, make bread and no one makes better rice - not even the chinese. he supports my every, crazy endevour. he went 44 years without a driver's license and got his license after being trained by my crazily-wonderful french canadian friend in 2 weeks. she never stopped talking the whole time. in french.

he has biked everywhere his entire life, at one job he biked 24km EACH WAY. that's to and from! 24km to work AND 24km from work! oh and just accidentally has an honours degree in philosophy.

i believe that he is Our Lord's most beautiful and perfect creation. but i might be biased. he can very accurately shoot a ben pearson cougar re-curve from both the left and right. and his aim is dead on.

he is bow-legged and only 5'7", but has the most incredible eyes. and a tiny mole on his upper lip. he writes the most romantic "insta-poems". he tells me he loves me several times a day. he calls me "babe" and "honey". and he means it.he loves hot sauce and spicey things like cayenne and banana peppers, he buys (or now picks) me flowers, he left a lucrative, high-paying IT job and his family to follow me here to this remote little island. he builds me shelves and washes all of our laundry with me by hand.

oh and he was baptized Anglican. and was an alter boy. sheesh. somehow, through my intervention, i am turning him into a pagan-christian-fundamentalist-confuscian. look, even i can't figure that out!

the name jambaloney is a nickname that i gave him over 10 years ago. he still uses it. he can be reached at "jambaloney@gmail.com". he loves comments or emails. and he loves me.

if i were given the opportunity to wish one thing for the world - i would wish that every woman on the planet had a jambaloney. i know that i could save the world this way. i have friends who have asked me to clone him. i am trying. believe me, i am trying. one day i will perfect the science involved, and when that happens, i promise all of you a jambaloney.

i love him more than...breathing, lobster, boiled dinner, fresh bread out of the oven, bugging out, singing back up for Madonna (ok...i made that one up!), fresh sheets on the bed, a glass of red wine after a long day, sunflower seeds, lavender, growing my own potatoes, T.S. Eliot, dancing, my babies (who are really just cranky old cats!) and the Bible.

i love him more than i love Framboise Manor. and i really love Framboise Manor.

About kymber

(this pic might seem odd. trust me, it's not. 20 yrs ago kymber went shopping with a girlfriend from the military and bought this dress. then she hooked up with that girlfriend recently. they caught up through email and one day kymberz friend mentioned that specific dress. kymber said she still had it (kymber still has her prom gown for crying out loud!). the friend did not believe it. so we had to take a pic of kymber wearing the 20yr old dress for her friend. kymber always likes to add accessories...and well, we had the bunny ears laying around. ya know, cuz everyone always has pink bunny ears laying around. ok, that's it...i am out of here! jambaloney)

what can i say about kymber?? A LOT!!most of it will have to wait for blog entries ‘cuz i just don’t have enough space here to do her justice…

so i’ll have to do my best… first and foremost, kymber is my partner and i will love her forever. she is the best partner anyone could ever have, i am one lucky guy!! she is 46, she is sweet as can be, smart as a whip, super cute, exceptionally feminine, strong as an ox, honest, kind, empathetic, wise, an amazing dancer, a master wit in speaking and writing….i could go on..i will!

at 5’ 1’’ she packs a wallop – a true force of nature -she is a master gardener and chef and spent 10 years in the Canadian Military – she has done 2 tours of Alert (the north bloody-cold pole). she is a UN-certified Korean linguist and spoils our 2 cats rotten. she also spent 12yrs working in the federal government, as a communications analyst at SolGen (now PSEPC) and Fintrac. she loves nature in the true sense of the phrase..the wildflowers, insects and birds here at framboise manor keep her entranced and captivated for hours.

anyone who is her friend knows that she will stop at nothing to help and heal, dedication and loyalty are an integral part of who she is and she is dead serious about anything she puts her mind to. yet she maintains the most delicate touch and a smile on her face always, never afraid to live and love no matter where and when.

she is the most genuine human being i have ever met! and she has encouraged me to embark on the most crazy and exciting adventure i could imagine… thank you babe - i sooo love you!!!